Today's Edition
A. SREENIVASA REDDY (ABU DHABI)
Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADQ), a wholly owned subsidiary of L’IMAD Holding, will pay the offer price to shareholders who accepted its cash offer for AD Ports Group and transfer the acquired shares to ADQ on September 25 following the satisfaction of all conditions, a stock market disclosure said.
Following the settlement, ADQ’s ownership in AD Ports Group will rise to 98.93%, according to the latest disclosure. The voluntary conditional cash offer sought to acquire shares not already owned by ADQ at Dh6.25 per share.
The latest announcement brings forward the settlement from the earlier deadline of October 9.
A previous disclosure had said settlement, involving payment of the offer price to accepting shareholders and transfer of their shares to ADQ, would take place no later than October 9.
ADQ launched the offer on August 18 for about 1.251 billion AD Ports Group shares, representing 24.58% of the company’s issued share capital. ADQ already owned 75.42% of the company when the offer was launched.
Shareholders representing more than 23.08% of AD Ports Group’s issued share capital accepted the offer before it closed on September 15.
The Dh6.25 offer price represented a 23% premium to AD Ports Group’s closing price of Dh5.10 on August 14, before the proposed transaction was announced. It was also 25% above the one-month volume-weighted average price of Dh5.02 and 31% above the three-month average of Dh4.76.
The offer price was 95% above the Dh3.20 subscription price at which AD Ports shares were listed on ADX in February 2022.
AD Ports Group’s board had recommended that minority shareholders accept the offer after reviewing a fairness opinion from HSBC Bank Middle East, its independent financial adviser.
L’IMAD had said when announcing the transaction that AD Ports Group played a “strategic and critical role” in supporting Abu Dhabi’s economy and would require continued investment in infrastructure. It said full ownership would provide greater flexibility for capital investment programmes, strategic acquisitions and operational transformation.
The disclosure is silent on the process for acquiring the remaining 1.07% of shares, which would be required for L’IMAD Holding to take full ownership of the company.
L’IMAD is a sovereign investment platform of the Abu Dhabi Government and owns ADQ in full. Its ports and logistics platform includes AD Ports Group, Etihad Rail and Aramex.
